@Pamela14 - Don’t give up on them just yet. I would get them covered with some soil/compost and leave them in the shed for a few more weeks. Prior to trying to start them into growth, soak them for a couple of hours in some warm water. Put them in a seed tray with some soil below the tuber and lightly over the top but ensuring the crown is not covered. Place them somewhere warmish and you might get a surprise. It could take as long as three weeks for the eyes on the tuber to start to sprout.
@Pamela14 - no, just cover them now with whatever compost or soil you have to hand. It can be pre-used - doesn’t have to be good stuff. This is just to stop them drying out any further. Continue to keep them in your shed.
During March, uncover the tubers. If they still look dry and withered, give them a soak for a couple of hours before putting in a seed tray as previously described.
Once they have got away, pot them on into largish pots whilst you wait for the weather to warm up in May before planting out. Keep them somewhere sheltered in the meantime. Dahlia tubers can get quite dry and shrivelled before they give up the ghost; you only have to look at what they sell in the plastic bags in garden centres sometimes.
@Pamela14 - no, just cover them now with whatever compost or soil you have to hand. It can be pre-used - doesn’t have to be good stuff. This is just to stop them drying out any further. Continue to keep them in your shed.
During March, uncover the tubers. If they still look dry and withered, give them a soak for a couple of hours before putting in a seed tray as previously described.
Once they have got away, pot them on into largish pots whilst you wait for the weather to warm up in May before planting out. Keep them somewhere sheltered in the meantime. Dahlia tubers can get quite dry and shrivelled before they give up the ghost; you only have to look at what they sell in the plastic bags in garden centres sometimes.
Too right.
I've found there's more to work with in the second season as they can put on a fair amount of size in their first season. Allows for some collateral damage that you don't often have with the small ones you buy.
@rachel858, l think they possibly mean like this as shown in this photo from Sarah Raven If you can find the old plant stalk to make sure they are upright, and then spread the tubers out. Sometimes it's easier to do it in seed trays rather than pots depending on the size of the tubers. Are you planning on growing them in pots, or eventually planting in the garden ? Also do you have a greenhouse or coldframe? PS Welcome to the forum
I found the best way to get them to regrow, (a different gardening mag I buy) plant them April, in pots, just below the surface, exclude light, for 10 days, then you have very pale shoots, which once exposed to light soon green up.Over the years I have dried tubers, left them in trays,planted in sand,compost, some things work some years some don't
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During March, uncover the tubers. If they still look dry and withered, give them a soak for a couple of hours before putting in a seed tray as previously described.
Once they have got away, pot them on into largish pots whilst you wait for the weather to warm up in May before planting out. Keep them somewhere sheltered in the meantime. Dahlia tubers can get quite dry and shrivelled before they give up the ghost; you only have to look at what they sell in the plastic bags in garden centres sometimes.
I've found there's more to work with in the second season as they can put on a fair amount of size in their first season. Allows for some collateral damage that you don't often have with the small ones you buy.
ideas for planting dahlias welcome.
thank you
If you can find the old plant stalk to make sure they are upright, and then spread the tubers out. Sometimes it's easier to do it in seed trays rather than pots depending on the size of the tubers.
Are you planning on growing them in pots, or eventually planting in the garden ? Also do you have a greenhouse or coldframe?
PS Welcome to the forum